Spring Forward This Sunday At 2 AM

It’s nearly time to change our clocks and spring forward into longer, hopefully warmer nights. If only we could save ourselves from the seasonal allergies. It changed the beginning of Daylight Saving Time from the first Sunday of April to the second Sunday of March, and the end of DST from the last Sunday in October to the first Sunday in November.

There is contradictory evidence whether this energy-saving tactic actually conserves energy or instead uses more because people are out later into the evenings. It also is a crime deterrent, DOT claims, because people are out during the daylight and not at night, “when more crime occurs”, the agency states.

The reasoning behind daylight savings and the time shifts was to take advantage of the daylight in the mornings and the lighter evenings during the summer.

According to a study released by the American Academy of Neurology, the overall rate of ischemic stroke is 8 percent higher within the first two days of adjusting the clocks for daylight saving time. Twice a year. You know, like clockwork.

Medical Director of the Centre for Sleep and Human Performance Dr. Charles Samuels says the time change can really mess up our sleep patterns even more than the fall change.

However, not everyone agrees it offers energy saving benefits. In Hawaii, it’s because the sunrise and sunsets times don’t vary almost as much as they do further north.

States are able to exempt themselves. More than 70 countries observe daylight-saving time. Prior to the new laws, only certain areas of the state observed the time changes.

It’s interesting to note that the only places that do not recognize daylight saving time in the United States is Hawaii, Arizona, and many U.S. Territories, like Guam and the U.S. Virgin islands. You either are reading this earlier than usual or set the digital clock improperly and already are an hour behind in your day.

The idea of daylight saving was the brainchild of Benjamin Franklin, aka, the “early to bed, early to rise” guy, back in 1784.